The North American International Auto Show in Detroit is one part trade fair and one part Barnum & Bailey Circus. Concept cars are the prancing ponies -- or sometimes the pratfalling clowns.
底特律國際車展一方面是場汽車展銷會，另一方面卻像巴納姆和貝利馬戲團表演。車展上的概念車有時像歡蹦亂跳的小馬駒，有時又像嘩眾取寵的小丑。
Car makers use auto-show concept cars, usually one-of-a-kind prototypes built by hand, to capture the imaginations of the press and public with flashy visions of what might come tomorrow. Some show cars are pure whimsy, confections dreamed up by young designers at play.
汽車生產商們通過車展來展出概念車(通常都是手工打造且獨一無二的樣車)，將媒體和公眾對未來車型所展開的天馬行空的想像具象化。展出的車型中有些純屬異想天開，只是年輕設計師們閑來無事的憑空想像。
More and more, as at this year's Detroit show, car makers like General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are pursuing concept cars that have serious intent. Some are thinly disguised prototypes of cars in the pipeline. Some present a technology idea that executives want to road-test with the press and public.
正如今年的底特律車展顯示，越來越多的汽車生產商，如通用汽車公司和豐田汽車公司正在研發具有嚴謹意圖的概念車。有些屬于醞釀之中的車型的樣車，只不過稍加偽裝而已；有些則展現了某種技術概念，管理層希望就此測試媒體和公眾的反應。
Here are some of this year's notable show cars:
以下為展出的幾款本年度值得關注的車型：
-- GMC Granite
通用GMC Granite廂式概念車
GMC, one of the four U.S. brands that survived the General Motors bankruptcy, is best known for sturdy commercial trucks, large pickups and beefy Yukon and Suburban sport-utilities. Now GM has decided it wants to expand the GMC brand with some more-petite offerings. Behold the Granite, which GMC describes as an "urban utility vehicle" and "the automotive equivalent of an urban loft apartment."
GMC作為在通用汽車破產中幸免于難的四個美國品牌之一，以其堅固的商用貨車，大型皮卡，結實的Yukon和Suburban運動型多功能車（SUV）而著稱。現在通用汽車決定生產小型車以拓寬GMC的品牌影響力。看一看這款Granite，GMC將其描述為一款“適合城市用途的汽車”和“汽車式城市閣樓公寓”。
To be sure, a very small urban loft apartment, equipped with a 1.4-liter engine and a six-speed transmission. If the idea of a boxy, four-cylinder urban micro-wagon rings a bell, that's because this is pretty much the idea behind the existing flock of vehicles led by the Toyota Scion xB, and joined more recently by the Nissan Cube and the Kia Soul.
這無疑是一款很小的城市閣樓公寓，配有一個1.4升發動機和一個六檔變速箱。如果一輛四四方方的四缸城市微型汽車的設計聽來耳熟，那是因為它已存在于現有汽車的設計之中，這一潮流由豐田Scion xB領導，最近尼桑Cube和起亞Soul也加入其中。
-- Toyota FT-CH
豐田FT-CH混合動力概念車
Toyota has struggled for years to figure out what is hip. When the company was enjoying huge financial success and gaining market share, its leaders worried that having a reputation for bulletproof quality and smart technology wasn't enough. Now that the company has stumbled badly on the quality front, and recorded a big loss for the first half of its fiscal year, Toyota's crusade for hipness is taking on more urgency.
豐田公司奮斗多年以期弄清何謂潮流。當公司享受著巨大經濟成功并獲得市場份額時，其領導人擔憂僅在口碑上擁有可以防彈的質量和智能技術是不夠的。如今公司在質量方面跌跌撞撞，根據記錄顯示前半個財政年度損失慘重，豐田向潮流進發的遠征任務顯得更加緊迫。
The FT-CH, a compact hybrid with a key-lime-green color scheme and a compact, hatchback profile, was designed by one of Toyota's European design teams. According to the company, the team sought to channel the feel of early 1980s 8-bit microprocessor videogames such as Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog.
豐田FT-CH小型混合動力車由公司中的歐洲設計團隊設計，采用醒目的淺綠配色方案，體型小巧，車體為掀背式。豐田公司稱該設計團隊致力于從上世紀80年代早期的八位微處理電腦游戲，諸如超級瑪麗和刺猬索尼克中尋找靈感。
-- Hyundai Blue-Will
現代Blue-Will概念車
The Chevrolet Volt hasn't even hit the market, but already GM can claim that it has changed the conventional wisdom in the auto industry about so-called plug-in hybrids -- cars that derive some of their power from gasoline engines, and some from plugging into the electric grid. Not so long ago, the industry wisdom on plug-ins was that they represented a fringe technology, too expensive for mass production. The Hyundai Blue-Will concept is an acknowledgment that in the future every major player in the U.S. market will have to have either a plug-in model or an all-electric model to be taken seriously.
盡管通用雪佛蘭Volt尚未上市，通用汽車已然可以說它已經改變了汽車行業對插電式混合動力車的傳統觀念。這種類型車輛的動力部分來自汽油發動機，部分通過插電獲取動力。不久前汽車產業還認為插電式混合動力車僅代表著一種邊緣技術，對于量產而言則過于昂貴。現代Blue-Will概念車令美國市場各大廠商承認，未來他們必須精心推出一款能讓市場認同的插電式混合動力車或者全電動車型。
-- Audi e-tron and BMW Concept ActiveE
奧迪e-tron與寶馬ActiveE概念車
On the floor of the Detroit Auto Show, the Audi e-tron show car sits across the aisle from the display of electric sports cars from Tesla Motors Inc. The juxtaposition is apt. The e-tron -- a variant of a concept Audi started showing last year -- represents the next step in the evolution of electric luxury cars from politically correct green technology to a more hedonistic, high-performance appeal, an evolution that is a foundation of Tesla's business. The Audi e-tron's styling borrows the aggressive stance and high-performance promise of the brand's $114,200 R8 super sports car. Not far from the Audi show vehicle is BMW AG's latest iteration of electric drive, the Concept ActiveE -- more easily described as an electric 1-series coupe.
在展廳里特斯拉汽車公司電動跑車展臺和奧迪e-tron概念車展臺就隔著一條路。這樣的并列布局十分恰當。本次車展上的奧迪e-tron概念車是對去年發布款型的改良版，體現了豪華電動汽車產業從追隨政治潮流大打環保節能牌向強調享樂與高性能并重的下一步演變，這也正是特斯拉汽車的發展之本。e-tron的外觀設計借鑒了奧迪R8──這款以前衛設計和高性能著稱的超級跑車售價為11.42萬美元。奧迪e-tron展臺不遠處便是寶馬公司最新推出的ActiveE電動概念車，簡單來說，它就是寶馬1系列的電動版。
-- Mini Beachcomber
寶馬Mini Beachcomber
BMW has said from Day One in its relaunch of the Mini franchise that it intended to create a family of Minis, reviving more than just the iconic Mini Cooper two-door. The Mini Beachcomber concept represents a tricked-out version of a real fourth model Mini to launch later this year: a Mini crossover. The Beachcomber's open-sided body and beach-buggy vibe is designed to recall the Mini Moke -- a tiny Jeep-like dune buggy Mini produced in the mid-1960s to the delight of beach bums everywhere in the British Commonwealth.
在Mini系列車型重新面世的第一天，寶馬汽車便表示要打造Mini車家族而不僅僅是將重振Mini Cooper雙座車。Mini Beachcomber概念車大膽前衛的設計為今年晚些時候發布的Mini家族第四代：Mini Crossover奠定了基礎。這款車的敞開式車身以及沙灘越野車風范都讓人回想起Mini Moke──這款有著吉普外形的迷你沙灘車誕生于上世紀60年代中期的英國，以迎合當時遍布英聯邦各地的沙灘愛好者們。
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（來源：愛詞霸沙龍 編輯：Julie）
